The Sacrificial Gift of the King
We are only a few days away from Christmas! It’s funny how we always comment on how fast Christmas gets here, but it’s the exact same date every year, and it’s always 365 days after the last one. What we really mean is Christmas is almost here, and we haven’t finished shopping. Only two more days to figure out what gifts to buy. And that’s one reason why my least favorite part of Christmas is the gifts. I know that sounds very Scrooge of me, but I just feel like the gifts do more to take away from the holiday than add to it. It creates an urgency and pressure that makes it an even more stressful time of the year than it already is.
We walk around the mall or Target, or scroll for hours through Amazon trying to figure out what to buy…and what that tells me is that we don’t really need to buy anything. We are just buying because there’s a high expectation for gifts given and received. And it might sound crazy, but I would say that the expectations around presents have become one of Christmas's most un-Christ-like things. Not because there’s anything wrong with giving gifts. That’s very Christ-like. The whole reason we celebrate Christmas is because God is the GOAT when it comes to gifts. He’s the OG who gave the greatest gift of all time.
The problem with the culture of gift-giving that we’ve developed is that it distracts from and even devalues the great gift-giver that God is. We’re going to be in Isaiah 53 today, so if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to go ahead and turn there. The text will also be on the screen. Isaiah 53 is a passage that’s more closely associated with Easter than Christmas, but as we study it, I want you to see the difference between the gifts that we give and the gift that God gave. Let’s start with verses 1-3 for context.
1 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2He grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground.
He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from;
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to his people, the Israelites, in a time of captivity and darkness that seemed hopeless.
But God kept giving these messages of hope for future rescue, and here in Chapters 52 and 53, he gives a very specific picture of how that will happen, which we know came through Jesus. But, try to think about this from the perspective of the original audience. It’s not an impressive picture. He’ll be a man of suffering, despised and rejected. In fact, Isaiah says there’s really nothing special about this coming Savior that would draw anyone’s attention. If God is sending him as a gift, he sounds like the gift that gets forgotten.
Maybe you can relate to this, but when I was growing up, it seemed like every year, my mom would forget to give out at least one present on Christmas morning. Later on that day or even a few days later, she’d suddenly remember that one present she had tucked away in a closet somewhere. Obviously, that wasn’t the “big gift” of the season, like a bike or new shoes or something. It was more of an afterthought gift, like a t-shirt or gadget or something that she bought as “Christmas fluff,”…a lot like the apples and oranges we used to get in our stockings….which never made sense to me….until I became a parent. Fruit and candy fill out those stockings nicely!
But we know that Jesus wasn’t just Christmas fluff. He wasn’t an afterthought or a cheap second. At the time, the Israelites may have questioned this promised gift or even felt disappointed by the message that Isaiah was giving because it didn’t sound too impressive at first. But just because the gift isn’t appreciated at first doesn’t mean it’s not a good gift. There’s a reason you don’t give a valuable family heirloom to your toddler. It won’t mean anything to them. They’d rather have a cardboard box to play with. But the fact that God gave this gift to his people, to us, in this way reveals some things about God. And we’re going to see he’s actually a really, really good gift-giver.
Now, I am going to be a little vulnerable as we go through the rest of this passage because I’m going to reveal some ways that I am not like God…not that anyone thinks I am. And maybe you can relate to me, maybe not, but I’m just being honest, so don’t judge me too hard.
Here’s the first thing about me: I’m cheap. Some of you aren’t surprised. But I admit it. When it comes to Christmas, I like to try and figure out how to buy good gifts but spend the least amount of money possible. The other day, Brittany sent me this meme that is extremely accurate. About mid-November, I start trying to have the Christmas-budget conversation, and it never goes well. But a lot of you are cheap, too. You shop the sales, and you make sure you take the price tags off of your gifts. Have you ever thought about that’s good etiquette? It’s not because we’re proud of how much we paid, it’s because we don’t want people to know how little we spent. But look at Isaiah 53:4-5:
4Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,
and he carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
This shows us that God is anything but cheap….God is lavish! Instead of removing the price tag, it’s like he’s readying it out loud to us because God gave us a gift that cost him greatly! He held nothing back! He took on the form of man and then gave himself over to all the brokenness that the world has to offer. He willingly took on our sickness, our pain, and suffering. It’s as if we were in the checkout line to pay for all of our junk… sin and its baggage that we accumulate as a result of living in a broken world (cancer, addiction, divorce, loneliness….), and Jesus stepped up to the cashier, took out his wallet, and said, “I’ll cover it.” I love the NIV version of 1 John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!”
Jesus was crushed because of God’s lavish love. He was pierced because it was the price tag for our salvation. I can be pretty cheap, but God is not. He spared no expense in giving you and me the greatest gift and meeting our greatest need.
That leads me to the second thing I will confess: I’m a practical gift-giver. If I’m going to spend the money on a gift, I want it to at least be on something useful, which is not necessarily a good thing because the best gifts aren’t always practical….practical gifts are usually boring. Jumper cables are a practical gift. You might need them at some point, but you just don’t know when. A multi-tool pen is a practical gift because you never know when you’re going to need a writing instrument, screwdriver, bottle opener, and flashlight at a moment’s notice.
You may be thinking that God is practical, too. He gave a gift that is useful, but I would say he’s not practical, he’s pragmatic. The two have similar meanings, but if something is pragmatic, it means it’s grounded in reality. It’s not based on theory or possibilities. Jumper cables are practical, but a Wawa gift card is pragmatic because you are going to need gas (or a hoagie) in the immediate future! It’s not based on a possibility. Look at verses 5-9 of Isaiah 53.
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
6 We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all.
8 For he was cut off from the land of the living;
he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
These verses highlight the problem of the human condition. His punishment for our peace reveals the turmoil and brokenness that exists in our lives and our relationships, especially the relationship between people and God. Verse 5 says that we are healed, which reveals a problem within us because to be healed, you first have to be sick. Verses 6 & 8 reveal the wages of our sin; rebellion calls for just punishment. See, God knew exactly what we needed, but not based on a theory or possibility. This is reality.
I think the Old Testament sacrificial system helps us see this even more clearly. The general idea was to bring a sacrifice to the temple for the priest to intercede before God on your behalf, and therefore, your sins would be forgiven. That’s a very practical system. It makes sense. When you sin, you take the steps necessary to make it right. But that’s based on the theory that you will a.) recognize your sin, b.) do what’s necessary to atone for your sins, and c.) carry out the requirements in a way that fulfills the law perfectly. On paper, it works, but it’s not grounded in reality.
To be clear, God never intended that to be how we are saved. He didn’t implement the law to test a theory. Romans 3:20 says, “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin.” The law served to highlight just how great a need we have for salvation from someone besides ourselves. The practical plan paved the way for the pragmatic gift of Jesus. The incarnate deity, the King, was the only one who could step in and fulfill the law. He had to become the ultimate sacrifice and take on the punishment we deserve to earn the peace we didn’t deserve. He had to take on our wounds so that we could be healed. He had to bear the weight of our sins so that God’s wrath was poured out on him rather than on us. That’s a pragmatic gift that meets our very real and immediate need, and it’s neither cheap nor boring!
There’s one other confession I will make, and that is that I can be a selfish gift-giver. What I mean is that no matter how genuine I am in giving a meaningful gift, there’s a part of me that wants the person to love and appreciate that gift…and give me some praise for it in return. You know what I mean. It’s really disappointing when you work hard to research and shop for just the right gift, spend money on it, and then get little to no reaction or expression of gratitude. That’s not completely selfish. We just want to know we’ve done something meaningful. But sometimes, we do want the recognition. Extended family (grandparents) are probably the worst about this. It used to give me anxiety to think about what gifts our kids might get from family on birthdays and Christmas. Really cool stuff. Big, loud, exciting… but then it has to come back to our house…and we have to live with it…or listen to it…and find a place for it to go…! How about some jumper cables!? Do you know why grandparents don’t give practical gifts? Because they are boring and they don’t get the reaction they want! Socks and underwear don’t exactly scream Grandma’s awesome.
However, there’s an element of this reciprocal pleasure and satisfaction in God’s gift to us, too. Look at verse 10.
10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely.
When you make him a guilt offering,
he will see his seed, he will prolong his days,
and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
11 After his anguish,
he will see light and be satisfied.
By his knowledge,
my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will carry their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him the many as a portion,
and he will receive the mighty as spoil,
because he willingly submitted to death,
and was counted among the rebels;
yet he bore the sin of many
and interceded for the rebels.
There was a great cost in Jesus’ sacrifice, but there was also pleasure in it. It pleased God because His will was carried out. It pleased God because he wants our relationship with him restored. He wants us to be brought into his family as sons and daughters. It also pleased him in a way that satisfied the need. His wrath and justice needed to be satisfied with a blood sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled that need. Notice that verse 12 says that in return, he received the many as a portion, as spoil. A portion refers to the inheritance that the oldest son in a family would receive at a certain age or when the father died. And the spoil refers to the spoils of war. In other words, because of his sacrifice, Jesus gets the glory of a bigger kingdom.
Now, that may sound like God is selfish….like he did all of this just for his own pleasure and benefit. But I would say that God is not selfish. He is sufficient. The great exchange of one life for many, the gift of sacrifice for the return of glory, is not selfish because God is sufficient. God knows that the greatest thing he could give us is himself because nothing else will meet our greatest need. The alternative would be that he leave us to ourselves to try and solve our sin problem, to try and find peace, satisfaction, and life on this earth. But that would be selfish of God. If he withheld himself, we would certainly suffer and search but never get anywhere. But he is sufficient to meet all of our needs, and so he lovingly and generously gave himself to us. And in return, he gets a greater kingdom and a greater glory. He’s not selfish; he is sufficient.
John Piper famously said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” I love that phrase and believe God used it to change the direction of my life when I first heard him preach it 20-something years ago. For the first time, I began to understand the idea of enjoying God and giving my life as an act of worship to Him. And I probably wrestle with it even more today than I did then as a young, naive college student. But when I study passages like this, it reminds me again of the sufficiency of Christ and of my need to be satisfied in him alone. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said it like this,
“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way. . . . God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing”
God doesn’t need us. He is not sitting around, anxiously awaiting our attention. He’s not insecure in his identity without people praising him. But he wants us, and he wants us to realize that we desperately need him, and the more we realize that, the more glory he inherently receives. It’s a beautiful gift from a lavish, pragmatic, and sufficient God.
If there’s a way we can apply this passage to our lives today, it’s that we need to stay needy. Isaiah 53 is not a passage, and this is not a message about being a better giver, as if we could somehow follow Jesus’ example. This is about how we receive the gift that’s been given to us. What’s been challenging to me as I studied and prayed over this was not that I forget that I have needs, but I doubt God’s ability or even desire to meet those needs. My wife will tell you that there are days when my attitude towards life reflects anything but the sufficiency of God. I start looking and hoping for all the other things to solve my problems. Sometimes, I even get frustrated with God and get down on my knees and just have it out with him….asking why…why God? Why aren’t you doing what I want you to do…?
I wish I could say God speaks to me in those moments like he did to Moses, and I get up with a clear answer. Instead, the Spirit usually calms me and reminds me that, although I don’t know why God isn’t doing what I want or think he should do…
I know why it’s not….it’s not to punish me because Jesus was punished for my peace. It’s not to hurt me because Jesus was wounded for my healing. It’s not to abandon me or stick me in the corner, lonely and afraid because Jesus was cut off my rebellion; it’s not to manipulate me or make me try harder….because Jesus already satisfied all the work of the law on my behalf. And that’s way better than any gift we could give or receive this Christmas!
Here’s the Big Idea: God is the greatest giver, who gave the greatest gift, to meet our greatest need. God is the greatest giver, who gave the greatest gift, to meet our greatest need. And I want to add that it was not just a one-time gift….given once to earn our salvation yet. That is true, but it’s a gift that keeps on giving. Not like the Jelly of the Month club….that’s the give that keeps on giving the whole year… Jesus is the greatest gift that continues to meet us exactly when and where we need him.
When we’re afraid, he gives us faith and wisdom.
When we are lonely, he gives us the intimacy of a best friend.
When we are guilty, he gives us forgiveness.
When we are hurt, he gives us healing.
When we are ashamed, he gives us identity and worth.
When we are sad, he gives us joy as we grieve our loss, but we know that all is not lost.
As we celebrate Christmas this week, I pray that we remember that God is lavish, pragmatic, and sufficient. He is the greatest giver, who gave the greatest gift, to meet our greatest need. Will you admit that you need him and receive that gift today?